PanThe Times Literary Supplement (UK)Marc Morris invites us to pursue that feeling; to discover the foundations of our country. His book is packaged as a history of English origins. But whose history is it? ... A political narrative from the Romans to the Normans, it focuses on the lives of great men: kings, bishops and warlords ... Morris reassures us that great men built England ... We might ask, what about women? Morris expresses concern. He explains in his introduction: \'Sadly, none of the chapters is focused on a woman, because there is simply not evidence to sustain such an extended treatment\'. But this is untrue ... Though he advises his readers of the necessity of marginalizing 50 per cent of the population, Morris’s focus on kings and bishops marginalizes 99 per cent. He seems to think he can write a history of the Anglo-Saxons that ignores the social and cultural frameworks that shaped life at that time. Morris’s canon of knowledge centred on great men impoverishes us all ... Morris’s brand of history is a relic of the Dickensian schoolroom. It numbs the inquiring mind, imposes specious value judgements, expresses impatience with debate, and lacks empathy with the past.
